REVIEW
ESOTERIC HEALING TRADITIONS: A CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW
Jeff Levin, PhD, MPH1,#
This paper presents, for the first time, a comprehensive schol-
arly examination of the history and principles of major tradi-
tions of esoteric healing. After a brief conceptual overview of
esoteric religion and healing, summaries are provided of eight
major esoteric traditions, including descriptions of beliefs and
practices related to health, healing, and medicine. These include
what are termed the kabbalistic tradition, the mystery school
tradition, the gnostic tradition, the brotherhoods tradition, the
Eastern mystical tradition, the Western mystical tradition, the
shamanic tradition, and the new age tradition. Next, common-
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of the
history and principles of major esoteric healing traditions, with
an emphasis on their commonalities. By esoteric healing,” what
is meant are those systems of beliefs, practices, and teachings on
health, healing, and medicine that are associated with ancient,
hidden, initiatory, and/or extant but nonmainstream spiritual
paths and metaphysical traditions that preserve secret wisdom
on transcendental themes. Naturally, this covers an immense
amount of territory; to do this topic justice would require a
book-length manuscript. This article intends simply to offer a
concise survey of the health-related features of major esoteric
systems, from ancient initiatory traditions of East and West to
the new age movement of the past quarter century.1 Healthcare
providers will benefit from a basic level of familiarity with these
phenomena, as their concomitant beliefs and practices— espe-
cially of the new age variety— have become increasingly accepted
and adopted by a growing segment of the healthcare-consuming
public, especially in regard to diagnosis and treatment.2 More-
over, as will be discussed, many concepts derived from esoteric
healing traditions are interwoven throughout the main currents
of complementary and alternative medicine.
This article comprises four sections. First, a brief conceptual
overview is provided of the esoteric realm. This includes a defi-
nition of terms and a discussion of the connections and corre-
spondences of beliefs and practices within respective esoteric
systems of healing and religion. Second, major classes of esoteric
systems are reviewed, with an emphasis on the role of medicine
and healing within these systems’ core teachings. These systems
are discussed within eight general categories: the kabbalistic tra-
dition, the mystery school tradition, the gnostic tradition, the
brotherhoods tradition, the Eastern mystical tradition, the West-
ern mystical tradition, the shamanic tradition, and the new age
1 Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
# Corresponding Author.
Web site: www.religionandhealth.com.
© 2008 by Elsevier Inc. Printed in the United States. All Rights Reserved
ISSN 1550-8307/08/$34.00
alities across these traditions are summarized with respect to
beliefs and practices related to anatomy and physiology; no-
sology and etiology; pathophysiology; and therapeutic mo-
dalities. Finally, the implications of this survey of esoteric
healing are discussed for clinicians, biomedical researchers,
and medical educators.
Key words: Healing, religion, spirituality, pathophysiology,
treatment, health, medicine
(Explore 2008; 4:101-112. © Elsevier Inc. 2008)
tradition. Third, a description is provided of where these healing
traditions converge in terms of characteristic features of their
beliefs and practices. This discussion focuses on issues related to
anatomy and physiology; nosology and etiology; pathophysiol-
ogy; and therapeutic modalities. Finally, implications of this
survey of esoteric healing are discussed. These include specific
implications for clinicians, biomedical researchers, and medical
educators.
CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW OF THE ESOTERIC
Contemporary religious scholars typically differentiate two gen-
eral types of religious expression. One, the outer or exoteric
path, comprises forms of expression associated with formal reli-
gious institutions and publicly known belief systems. The be-
liefs, practices, and trappings of the historic religions and de-
nominations constitute exoteric religion. The exoteric is the
religion of Roman Catholic popes, Jewish kippot and tallitot, the
Muslim hajj, the Hindu Maha៮ bha៮ rata, the Jain tattvas, the Ti-
betan Buddhist lineages, organized worship liturgies, congrega-
tional prayers and rituals, religious holidays and festivals, dog-
mas and doctrines, theological seminaries—in short, the public
face of religion.
By contrast, the inner or esoteric religious path represents the
mystical, symbolic, hidden, or initiatory way of connecting with
God or the cosmos. Esoteric religion is the stuff of meditation,
gnosis, arcane and secretive teachings, gurus, initiation, physical
austerities and exercises, and concomitant mystical, transcen-
dent, or unitive states of consciousness. A common observation
of both scholars and mystics is that although exoteric religions
may differ dramatically in their expressions of spirituality across
the many “dimensions of the sacred”3—that is, in terms of ritual
practices, beliefs, historical myths, cultic activities, sanctioned
experiences, liturgy, sacred architecture, and polity—features of
their respective esoteric, or inner, paths converge along a com-
mon core path. This underlying esoteric meta-path has been
denoted with a variety of terms: the “primordial tradition,”4 the
EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2 101
doi:10.1016/j.explore.2007.12.003
“secret wisdom,”5 the “forgotten truth,”6 the “ancient theology,”7
the “ageless wisdom,”8 and “the Path.”9
Although most (but not all) exoteric religions seem to possess
an esoteric counterpart, not all esoteric paths have an identifi-
able exoteric counterpart— either now or historically. Esoteric
spiritual paths do, however, typically have associated with them
particular beliefs and practices related to health, healing, and
medicine. The near universality of this observation perhaps
speaks to the inextricable connection of body, mind, and spirit
and a rejection of the modern tendency to conceive of human
beings strictly in mechanistic terms.10 Moreover, just as re-
spective exoteric religious and medical traditions appear cor-
related (eg, the individual-oriented, demystified, rationalized
materialism of both mainline Protestantism and allopathic
biomedicine; the nondualism of both contemplative Hinduism
and A ៮ yurveda), so too do respective esoteric cosmological and
healing systems go hand in hand. Further, just as there appears
to be a “perennial philosophy”—a common esoteric spiritual
tradition—so it stands to reason that esoteric healing traditions
exhibit common elements. This is explored in the third section
of this article.
The section that follows briefly outlines the health- and med-
ical-related beliefs and practices espoused by several categories of
esoteric traditions. These categories are by necessity rather broad
(eg, the brotherhoods, shamanic, and new age traditions), and
within each category passing reference may be made to multiple
esoteric systems, which may or may not be historically con-
nected. The objective here is not to provide encyclopedic detail,
but rather a concise overview of key facts and features, with
citation of helpful sources.
MEDICINE AND HEALING IN THE
ESOTERIC TRADITIONS
As noted earlier, the term esoteric covers a lot of conceptual
ground. Several distinct esoteric traditions, or classes of esoteric
systems, can be identified. Although in their respective beliefs
and concomitant practices and rituals these traditions are not
entirely discrete (ie, there is considerable overlap in both history
and content), they tend to self-identify as unique gateways to the
hypothetical esoteric realms. This section provides a brief sum-
mary overview of the history and most basic principles of the
systems of healing propounded by these major esoteric tradi-
tions.
The Kabbalistic Tradition
The Hebrew word kabbalah means “tradition” and refers to the
mystical tradition within Judaism.11 The kabbalistic tradition
comprises key literary works, such as the Zohar, an esoteric com-
mentary on the Hebrew Bible, and the Sefer Y’tzirah, a discourse
on metaphysical and numerological features of creation, energy,
matter, and higher consciousness, as well as other works by
medieval Jewish mystics. Kabbalah encompasses two main
branches. Speculative or theoretical kabbalah is concerned with
the nature of God, man, and the universe. This dimension of
kabbalistic exploration is responsible for many esoteric concepts
well known outside of strictly kabbalistic circles: the etz chayyim,
102 EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2
or tree of life; the s’firot, or spherical energy centers connecting
the transcendent to the manifested world; the four worlds or
planes of manifestation (known as atzilut, b’riah, y’tzirah, and
asiyyah and corresponding, roughly, to the familiar causal, men-
tal, astral, and physical planes of Theosophy); the sh’khinah, or
divine presence; the ein sof, or infinite void that preceded cre-
ation; and the art of g’matria, or scriptural interpretation based
upon the numerological identity of the Hebrew letters. Practical
kabbalah emphasizes spiritual practices such as meditation as
means of mystical union with God. The principles of practical
kabbalah also inform the magickal work of Western occultists
seeking to control and harness the energies of the universe for
ritual purposes. Although modern Jewish scholars generally con-
sider popular writing on the latter as a lurid distortion of kabbal-
istic teachings, even “practically worthless,”12 it has reached the
public eye in recent years through the activities of assorted rock
stars and Hollywood celebrities and has contributed to current
misperceptions of kabbalah.
Concurrent with the development of practical kabbalah over
the past millennium—and possibly predating it, if traditional
sources are correct—there has risen a stream of Jewish folk med-
icine based on equal parts Biblical and rabbinic teachings, on the
one hand, and speculative kabbalah, on the other. The encyclo-
pedic Biblical and Talmudic Medicine,13 for example, reads like a
comprehensive medical textbook, outlining etiologic, patho-
physiological, and therapeutic information culled from the To-
rah and from Talmudic and Midrashic sources. Contemporary
scholars have taken this material and, armed with insights from
kabbalistic mysticism, have written treatises expounding on hu-
man anatomy,14 detailing the healing power of herbs and natural
remedies,15 and describing the diagnostic or therapeutic efficacy
of phenomena such as divination16 and alchemy.17 Much of this
material is attributed to rabbinic scholars, sages, and mystics,
including Jewish medieval philosopher-physician Moses ben
Maimonides, who wrote at length on medical topics.18 Kabbal-
istic insights into health, disease, and healing are also accessible
to individuals armed with the requisite knowledge of g’matria to
enable identification of the hidden meaning of Biblical texts.19
Kabbalistic beliefs about health and illness and approaches to
healing are central to what Epstein has termed the “Western
spiritual medical tradition.”20 Among the seminal contributions
of this ancient system of “Hebraic medicine,” according to Ep-
stein,21 is the idea of “the bodymind unity”—the inseparability of
body and mind. One cannot even speak of cause and effect when
describing their interconnection. This is in contrast to other
more recently emergent systems of holistic healing that acknowl-
edge linkages between body and mind and attribute illness and
healing to mental or emotional agency, yet still view body and
mind as distinct, if connected, entities. This perspective on the
essential oneness of body and mind is clearly informed by kab-
balistic principles, such as the idea that all manifestation and
differentiation are the result of a common identity as “sparks”
emanating from the Creator.
The Mystery School Tradition
In the few centuries preceding the Common Era, secret cults of
initiation flowered in the Greco-Roman world, including Egypt
and much of Asia Minor. These societies, led by hierophants,
Esoteric Healing Traditions
offered graded instruction in the divine mysteries that governed
both cosmogony—the creation and origins of the universe—and
the spiritual evolution and self-actualization of individual seek-
ers. Among the most celebrated schools were those preserving
and ceremonializing the Eleusinian, Orphic, and Dionysian
mysteries with communal activities, rites, and festivals.22 A com-
mon theme of mystery school teachings was that divine revela-
tion is accessible to sufficiently prepared and initiated suppli-
cants or students. Among the most lasting and influential
sources of such revelation was the god-man Hermes Trismegis-
tus, a hybrid of the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth. The
Hermetic school was founded to pass along revelations on oc-
cult and scientific matters to initiates.23
In Angus’ classic and authoritative work, The Mystery-Reli-
gions,24 mystery schools are described as arcane religions charac-
terized by emphases on symbolism, redemption, gnosis, emo-
tion-inducing sacramental drama, eschatology, personal rebirth,
and cosmic interest. For the individual seeking reception by a
respective school, candidacy comprised three stages: katharsis, or
preparation and probation, including the swearing of secret
vows; muesis, or initiation and communion, for purposes of
beginning the process of regeneration; and epopteia, or experi-
ence of an epiphany or theophany, leading to blessedness and
salvation, or even immortality. Initiation was the central act in
this drama, from the individual’s perspective, and the fulcrum
by which any subsequent knowledge or experience was gained.
Specifically, initiation into the mysteries sought “to ‘open the
immortal eyes of man inwards’: exalt his powers of perception
until they could receive the messages of a higher degree of real-
ity.”25 In practice, this consisted of experiencing a ritual death of
the physical body and subsequent resurrection into a new body
with new capabilities of drawing down gnosis, or secret wisdom,
often regarding the functioning of the body itself.5 (pp136-157)
Much of the information received by initiates thus spoke to
matters related to normal and pathological physiology and to
the salutogenic process by which pathophysiological states
could be reversed. Nearly all of the ancient civilizations that
sponsored mystery schools (Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Phoeni-
cia, India, Iran, Greece, and Rome) also hosted a pantheon of
deities accessible to oracles, priests, and initiates for purposes of
facilitating healing.26 Through associated norms and rituals gov-
erning interaction and communion with these sources of gnosis,
the beliefs and practices promulgated by the mysteries, as far as
medicine was concerned, were ubiquitous and widespread.
Across schools, deep fonts of revealed wisdom were available
concerning how to understand and approach health— one’s own,
that of another person, and in theory—and how to effect physical
healing.27 Within the Greek healing cult of Aesclepius, for ex-
ample, initiated priest-physicians oversaw great healing temples
and shrines, operated medicinal springs, diagnosed and treated
disease through interpreting patients’ dreams, and marshaled a
therapeutic armamentarium that correlates with what today
would be termed natural hygiene: fresh air, clean water, sound
diet, and wholesome personal habits. The most famous Aes-
clepian initiate was Hippocrates, whose reforms hastened the
evolution of medicine from metaphysical to scientific disci-
pline.28
Esoteric Healing Traditions
The Gnostic Tradition
In the couple of centuries before and after the time of Jesus, a
pair of sectarian religious traditions respectively flourished in
the Holy Land. The Essenes, a minor branch of Judaism, and
the gnostics, a name much later given to a class of Christian
heresies, were distinctive and mostly unrelated movements.
But they were similar in certain respects and shared some
common influences. In contradistinction to the nascent rab-
binic Judaism of the day, the Essenes were monastic, often
celibate, communal, pacifistic, and vegetarian. According to
the first-century writings of Josephus, they were believers in
fate and in the immortality of the soul, stressed the impor-
tance of personal righteousness, and “live the same kind of
life as do those whom the Greeks call Pythagoreans,”29 one of
the mystery schools of antiquity. The Dead Sea Scrolls, a
cache of manuscripts uncovered between 1947 and 1956, pro-
vide a glimpse into the religious and secular life of the
Qumra៮ n community, believed to be Essene.
Contemporaneously, the discovery in 1945 of about a dozen
Coptic codices in Nag Hammâdi, Egypt, provided access to the
beliefs and practices of various groups of early Christians whose
heterodox views about God, Jesus, and the nature of the world
and of human beings set them apart from the hegemonic Roman
church.30 Like the Essenes, the gnostics were typically monastic
and ascetic, they were contemplative, and they affirmed the
possibility of mystical insight into man’s higher nature and the
nature of God and creation, a gnosis that the early church fathers
could not tolerate.31 Both Essenes and gnostics were character-
ized by dualistic beliefs—in heaven and hell, good and evil, light
and darkness, body and soul—possibly through exposure to Zo-
roastrian influences.32 The combination of mystical, ascetic, and
dualistic ideations, especially with respect to the human body,
promulgated a vaguely shared perspective on the maintenance
of health and on healing.
A possible link between the Essenes and gnostics may be
the Therapeutae, a monastic order of healers famously de-
scribed by Philo in his De Vita Contemplativa.33 The Thera-
peutae are thought to be an offshoot of the Essenes who later
established themselves near Alexandria, Egypt. Philo’s writing
postdated the demise of the sect, and much of what is popu-
larly believed about the Therapeutae, especially derived from
contemporary writings of modern neo-Essene groups, is likely
speculative at best or apochryphal.34 According to Philo, the
Therapeutae resorted to fasting and prayer, were “devoted
wholly to meditation and to the practice of virtue,” and,
significantly, “process an art of medicine more excellent than
that in general use in cities (for that only heals bodies, but the
other heals souls).”33 They were more contemplative than the
practical Essenes, and their monastic self-reflection is specu-
lated to be an influence on the gnostics, whose own sacred
writings contain references to healing that are resonant with
psychodynamic theories and the kinds of inner work charac-
teristic of transpersonal and humanistic therapies. The Gos-
pel of Thomas, for example, attributes to Jesus the following:
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save
you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have
within you will kill you” (Saying 70).35
EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2 103
The Brotherhoods Tradition
Influenced and informed by the teachings and rites of prior
esotericists, especially those originating in the ancient mystery
schools, medieval brotherhoods arose to preserve and transmit
the secret wisdom to generations of initiates. Modern Freema-
sonry was revived in 1717 as a lodge of masonic guilds, but its
origins lie centuries earlier, in the Templar Knights and a stream
of other secretive brotherhoods that date back to before the
Common Era.36 The esoteric doctrines of speculative masonry
may also have been informed by contact between Templars and
Isma៮ ‘ ៮ıl ៮ıs, or “Assassins,” a proto-Sufi sect that flourished in
Egypt, and elsewhere, from the 11th to 13th centuries. Subse-
quent groups evolved out of this lineage, including the Rosicru-
cians and various sects and organizations devoted to the study of
alchemy and other occult sciences for purposes of spiritual
growth and illumination.
The brotherhoods were, and are, graded initiatory orders, pre-
serving, according to their myths of origin, ancient mysterioso-
phy—arcane systems of knowledge, much of which pertains to
the healing arts. Brotherhood teachings have emphasized con-
cepts of perfection and balance, attainable through measured
progress. The Rosicrucians’ “harmonium” and the Martinists’
“reintegration” exemplify the centrality of equilibrium and
wholism within this world view. The alchemical search for the
mythic philosopher’s stone, said to transmute base metals into
gold, was really a quest for enlightenment and immortality
through purification of the physical, mental, emotional, and
spiritual vehicles and concomitant life energies. So much of the
practical work of alchemists was thus medicinal—preparation of
herbal elixirs to hasten these ends.37 The most celebrated alche-
mist, the 16th-century Swiss astrologer and occultist Theophras-
tus von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus, was also a physician
whose eclectic Hermetic-influenced theories of illness and heal-
ing emphasized the healing power of nature and of natural sub-
stances.38
To achieve and restore an integrated balance, perfection,
wholeness, and harmony—in oneself or in others—the broth-
erhoods have also practiced more subtle and ethereal forms of
healing. Among the higher degrees of Rosicrucian initiation is
a module of instruction on absent healing through a step-
sequential process of clairvoyant diagnosis and distant mental
intention.39 This technique is grounded in concentration,
visualization, empathy, humility, and prayer as the most ef-
fective way to maintain an open and clear channel to “the
Cosmic,” the source of all being. Interestingly, these same
elements are almost universally acknowledged as essential by
contemporary practitioners of healing at a distance, regardless
of background or training.40 The esoteric orders, according to
Dion Fortune, also practiced even more unusual forms of
healing, including “a method of healing by substitution, in
which, by extreme compassion with the suffering of a beloved
one, the suffering is experienced in the very self, and then, by
the appropriate reaction and realization, is expiated upon a
higher plane.”9 (p39) This procedure is functionally identical
to the healing-by-proxy method taught by some contempo-
rary subtle energy practitioners.
104 EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2
The Eastern Mystical Tradition
Concurrently, throughout Asia, transmission of esoteric wis-
dom from teachers to students served as a reliable conduit of
health-related instruction that drew on both sacred writings
and the influential medical theories of the ancient Greeks.
The Indian subcontinent in the first millennium of the Com-
mon Era was an especially fertile region for theoretical spec-
ulation and practical application. In his Yoga-Su៮ tras, a semi-
nal text for ra៮ ja-yoga and the Yoga philosophy generally, the
sage Patañjali devoted an entire section to the development of
siddhis, or supernormal powers attainable through advanced
meditative practices.41 The efficacy of these techniques was
validated for human physiology through the work of Elmer
and Alyce Green, of the Menninger Foundation, whose lab-
oratory investigations of Swami Rama, a contemporary ra៮ ja-
yogi, showed him capable of voluntarily modulating his brain-
wave patterns, creating and dissolving subcutaneous tumors
and cysts at will, and knowingly entering and exiting a 16-
second state of atrial flutter.42
The Sa៮ nkhya philosophy, another of the six philosophical
systems of India, also spawned a body of medical knowledge
in the form of A ៮ yurveda, but this school, by now a modern
and scientific counterpart to allopathic medicine, must be
considered exoteric in the present context.43 However, it too
has an esoteric counterpart in the many existing theories and
techniques of pranic and bioenergetic healing, also informed
in large part by principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine.44
Buddhism, as well, has an ancient tradition of canonical and
noncanonical writing on matters related both to wellness and
illness (regarding determinants of health, suffering, sickness,
mental illness, and substance abuse) and to caring and curing
(regarding appropriate medical treatments, guidance for care-
givers, bioethical decision making, and navigation of life-
course transitions, including death).45 Detailed instruction
exists on almost every important aspect of health, healing,
and medicine throughout the Pa៮ li, Chinese, and Tibetan Bud-
dhist canons. In The Healing Buddha, for example, Birnbaum46
documents the veritable materia medica found within the Pa៮ li
Buddhist Vinaya-Pitaka: natural and mineral substances such
as tallows, roots, astringents, leaves, fruits, resins, and salts
prescribed for conditions ranging from “wind afflictions” to
rheumatism, constipation, itches, boils, sores, eye diseases,
jaundice, snakebite, and poisoning.
Within Tibetan Buddhism, a sophisticated medical system
developed that, although drawing upon earlier Hindu and Bud-
dhist therapeutic traditions and sharing elements of the Greek
humoral system, is essentially sui generis.47 The Tibetan system
of etiology, diagnosis, and treatment is based on principals out-
lined in a fourth-century Indian collection brought to Tibet and
translated into Tibetan in the eighth century, known as the
rGyud-bZhi, or Four Tantras. A key etiologic theme is imbalance,
which resonates with the traditional Buddhist view that falling
out of balance—whether physically, mentally, or spiritually, or
through succumbing to aggression, desire, or ignorance—is a
primary cause of suffering, a state “that pervades virtually every
experience.”48 (p153) Imbalances may also occur in the context of
a triad of essential elements called chi, schara, and badahan,
roughly equivalent to space, energy, and matter, respectively.49
Esoteric Healing Traditions
Restoring balance requires remedying physical symptoms of ex-
cess, deficiency, and disturbance,50 accomplished through
various means including virtuous behavior, a natural diet,
folk medicinals, and accessory therapies such as massage or
moxibustion.51 Mental health and well-being can fall out of
balance, as well, and can be restored through meditative prac-
tices that cultivate happiness.52,53
The Western Mystical Tradition
A phenomenon mostly of the past couple of centuries, a
uniquely Western esoteric tradition has emerged as a repository
of ancient, arcane learning, both theoretical and practical. Mis-
cellaneous kabbalists, modern gnostics, and brotherhoods are
occasionally considered to be part of a Western mystical tradi-
tion, so named, but the phrase is more often reserved for non-
denominational groups with a strong intellectual emphasis on
occult or metaphysical instruction drawn from amongst the
teachings and legends of all of the previously catalogued tradi-
tions. Western esotericism, collectively and in contemporary
form, derives its concepts, theories, and practices from kabbalists
(especially techniques of practical kabbalah), the mystery
schools (especially with respect to the function of initiation and
the role of adepthood), gnostics (notably the process of seeking
and receiving “illumination”), the brotherhoods (organization-
ally and in their emphasis on preservation of and graded expo-
sure to protected wisdom), and Eastern mystics (especially the
Buddhist concept of the bodhisattva, or enlightened master,
whose guidance is accessible to those who learn how to navigate
the inner planes of consciousness). Theosophy54 and neopagan-
ism55 constitute two major branches of Western esotericism out-
side of the brotherhoods, and much of what has followed has
evolved either from Theosophy (eg, the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn, the Anthroposophical Society, the Society of
Inner Light, the Lucis Trust Arcane School) or from a hybrid of
both branches combined with gnostic and/or masonic elements
(eg, the Ordo Templi Orientalis and related groups).
This is not to say that the Western mystical tradition possesses
no original elements. Esoteric groups in the West exhibit, by
degrees, greater Christocentricity, such as among the Anthrop-
osophists, and in some respects are simultaneously more sympa-
thetic to pagan features of cosmogony, anthropogeny, and the-
ories of the human manipulability of matter and consciousness.
Contemporary craft, or magickal, work—for purposes of healing
and otherwise—is strongly influenced by equal parts kabbalistic
cosmology and the practices of ancient paleopagans and mystery
school initiates (eg, skrying, astral projection, “pathwork,” and
communication with higher consciousnesses). The practice of
healing emphasizes focused intentionality, affirmation, and
meditative techniques, in keeping with the assertion that physi-
cal matter can change in response to the action of the mind or
will.
The influence of concepts first popularized by Theosophists
in the late 19th century is widespread, informing most of what
Western esotericists believe about the multiple planes of exis-
tence, the subtle anatomy of human bodies, conscious evolu-
tion, karmic justice, reincarnation, and the purpose of life.56
Theosophists, beginning with H.P. Blavatsky’s The Secret Doc-
trine57 in 1888, introduced the West to a trio of influential con-
Esoteric Healing Traditions
cepts for the much later birth of holistic medicine: the existence
and operation of “thought forms,”58 the significance of the
chakras for healing,59 and the functioning of the “subtle” (ie,
etheric, astral, and mental) bodies in transducing potentials of
thought and emotion, for example, to the physical body from
the causal body or eternal “ego monad.”60 Other concepts are
just as important, notably the seven “rays” or human tempera-
ments,61 but they have not caught on as widely within contem-
porary alternative healing. This terminology is no doubt confus-
ing for novices, and Theosophists and their followers have
produced a cornucopia of writings on esoteric features of health,
disease, and healing.62 The Anthroposophists have taken things
further, producing a comprehensive philosophy of medical
thought and practice based on the prolific teachings of Rudolf
Steiner.63 Likewise, the esteemed Golden Dawn adept, Israel
Regardie, described a system of absent healing combining
prayer, meditation, visualization, and higher attunement that
both recalls certain techniques of the old initiatory brother-
hoods and anticipated and informed the contemporary perspec-
tive on noncontact healing.64
The Shamanic Tradition
The term shaman properly references a hierophant of the indig-
enous people of Siberia, Manchuria, and Central Asia,65 yet has
come to be adopted as a generic label for medicine people and
spiritual healers across a variety of native tribes and cultural
groups. By whatever name, the shaman was/is a kind of high-
priest physician of the primordial ur-religions dating to prehis-
tory32 and extant throughout parts of North America, South
America, Africa, Asia, and Polynesia. It is difficult to generalize
about belief and practice across such a wide sweep of cultures,
yet shamanic traditions are typically characterized by degrees of
animism, spiritism, polytheism, wholism, and specialized role
fillers who access and provide access to the imaginal, or unseen,
realms. This is mostly so whether one is referencing Trobriand
baloma spirits,66 Yoruba orisa divinities,67 Maya ch’ulel souls,68 or
innumerable constituent elements of other tribal-specific wel-
tanschauung, or world views. Across cultures, the shaman regu-
lates and officiates ritual acts that cohere communities of people
through normative understandings of space, time, life purpose—
and disease etiology—and provides entrée to states of conscious-
ness from which an identified “patient” may return healed or
otherwise restored. Ritual is an essential element here—an “anti-
machine,” as described by Dagara medicine man Malidoma Pa-
trice Somé,69 that delivers one from the fast-paced outer world
to a special place where healing is possible.
Throughout these cultural traditions, commonalities among
etiologic theories can be observed. A fascinating and compre-
hensive anthropological study of records from 139 indigenous
cultures, funded by the National Science Foundation in 1969,
identified five theories of natural disease causation (infection,
stress, organic deterioration, accident, and overt human aggres-
sion) and eight theories of supernatural disease causation (fate,
ominous situations, contagion, mystical retribution, soul loss,
spirit aggression, sorcery, and witchcraft) which, although not
universally present, taken together exist as features of the etio-
logic understandings of most of these cultures.70 Unlike modern
Western medicine, whose practice “has become increasingly dis-
EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2 105
cordant with lay expectations”71 (p251) on account of its focus on
professionally defined diseases (ie, professional notions about
abnormalities in bodily organs or systems) rather than on pa-
tient-defined illnesses (ie, self-perceived changes in states of be-
ing), within indigenous healing systems the actions of the sha-
man or native healer have been observed to restore function,
enhance affect, and result in highly satisfied clients, even in the
absence of symptomatic remission.71 The ubiquitous psycho-
therapeutic sequelae of shamanic treatment may offer a potent
explanation for these findings.72
A closer look at Native-American medicine, in its myriad
variations, exemplifies these points. Notwithstanding that “Na-
tive American” masks many varieties, as does “shaman,” basic
principles are observable, principally wholeness.73 The interrela-
tion of all things, derived from a single reality, implies a connect-
edness that intimately links all manifestation: people, nature,
spirits, the life force. Thus, elements of both the natural and super-
natural worlds, as well as characteristics internal to individual
people, such as thoughts, may function as etiologic factors and
as features of the therapeutic armamentarium. Medicine people
thus have a variety of tools at their disposal: prayer and chanting;
music; smudging; herbalism; laying on of hands; psychological
counseling; ritual ceremony; and facilitation of inner work such
as fasting and periods of silence. According to Kenneth “Bear
Hawk” Cohen, Native-American medicine can be contrasted
with allopathic medicine not just in terms of what each does, but
more importantly, in terms of world view: focus on restoring
health versus defeating pathology; etiologically multifactorial
versus reductionistic; teleological versus adversarial practice;
intuitive versus intellectual; advisory versus authoritarian;
and so on.65
The New Age Tradition
The final category of esoteric traditions to be discussed here is
the contemporary conglomeration of beliefs and practices that
go by the label new age. Much derided and misunderstood, the
new age, in its emergence around 30 years ago, was more a
quasi-social-movement than an established tradition of esoteric
learning and practice. But even that definition does not seem to
fit. As with medical self-care, a related emergent phenomenon of
the middle 1970s, the new age does not meet any of the estab-
lished sociological criteria for a social movement, namely an
identifiable ideology, a sense of common purpose or “we-ness,”
an established institutional structure or organization, and collec-
tive action through developed strategies and tactics.74 According
to religious historian J. Gordon Melton, the new age “has no
single leader, no central organization, no firm agenda, and no
group of official spokespersons.”75 Accordingly, new age healing
is a kind of polyglot, drawing elements from every one of the
other esoteric traditions, removed from their native contexts,
into a chaotic stew, updated and popularized and, some would
say, trivialized, for the masses. Qualitative studies have tried to
taxonomize the landscape of new age healing. The earliest schol-
arly study of the phenomenon, published in 1986, differentiated
body-oriented therapies for mental or physical self-betterment,
mental therapies based on esoteric teachings, and mostly Eastern
and ritualistic contemplative practices for soul development.1 A
subsequent ethnographic study distinguished among Asian-
106 EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2
based therapies, synthetic A ៮ yurvedic practices, Euro-American
naturalistic medical systems, and healing with mind and spirit.76
An identifying feature of new age healing that separates it
from other popular, nonprofessional modes of healing in the
West is a reliance upon revealed folk wisdom. By this is meant,
heretofore, hidden or altogether new information about health,
healing, or medicine that has been “externalized” only now, and
not principally through hierophants, adepts, or initiates, but
through common people, often caught unawares by an unex-
pected inspiration. The most familiar means of inspiration is
through variations of trance channeling, by which a person
enters— or is drawn into—an altered state of consciousness and
then becomes a vehicle for a discarnate entity (or, alternatively,
one’s “higher self”) to provide information, either for a client or
generally. The most famous modern channel of health-related
information was the late Edgar Cayce, the famous “sleeping
prophet” of Virginia Beach, Virginia, who produced over 14,000
psychic readings, of which 8,976 touch on medical topics related
to almost every conceivable disease or condition.77 The Cayce
material has generated a sophisticated and multifaceted ap-
proach to medical treatment, as well as a unique understanding
of human pathophysiology, resulting in a distinctive biomedical
philosophy and clinical practice style78 as established and rec-
ognizable as Anthroposophical medicine or any of the recent
Eastern imports, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Additional channels of health and medical information have
gained considerable followings, for example, Louise Hay, who
espouses use of verbal affirmation to de-empower pathophysio-
logical mental patterns79; Elizabeth Clare Prophet, a contempo-
rary representative of the mid-20th-century I AM movement and
source for the teachings of the discarnate “ascended masters”80;
Caroline Myss, a medical clairvoyant whose capabilities have
been subjected to empirical study81; the Course in Miracles, a
self-improvement program said to have been dictated to a cou-
ple of Columbia University medical professors by the Holy
Spirit82; and various well-known practitioners of “psychic sur-
gery,” a controversial modality with proponents in both the
Philippines83 and Brazil.84 Typically, the content of channeled,
revealed, or inspired information speaks to the healing power of
myriad natural substances— gemstones, crystals, color, light,
sound, herbs, minerals, animal products— or of alterations to
one’s mindset and thought patterns. Alternatively, the channel
may exhibit an actual healing gift, such as the “Mr A” (real name:
Bill Gray) written about by Ruth Montgomery in her bestselling
Born to Heal.85 To be fair to defenders of mainstream Western
medicine, it is not difficult to poke fun at the most marginal
examples of this genre, such as alien contactees. On the other
hand, new age healing may be too easily disparaged. It has served
as a vehicle for introducing a variety of progressive health-related
concepts to the public consciousness, including perspectives
and ideas that are now hallmarks of transpersonal and comple-
mentary approaches to health and well-being, such as the ther-
apeutic potential of intuition, dreams, and extraordinary human
capacities.86
POINTS OF CONVERGENCE
Across these many esoteric traditions, extensive commonalities can
be seen in characteristic features of their respective teachings about
Esoteric Healing Traditions
health, healing, and medicine. These include points of convergence
in expressed beliefs and/or practices related to (a) anatomy and
physiology, (b) nosology and etiology, (c) pathophysiology, and
(d) therapeutic modalities. One caveat: although the terminology
used to language particular concepts may vary dramatically across
esoteric systems, the underlying concepts themselves, in many
instances, appear to be roughly equivalent. For example, the
yogic pra៮ na, the Chinese qi, the Lakota wakan, the archaeus of
Paracelsus, the Pythagorean pneuma, the vis medicatrix naturae
of Hippocrates, and the orgone of Dr Wilhelm Reich all speak to
the idea of a circulating and transpersonal subtle energy, vital life
force, or biofield as a feature of human anatomy.87,88 These
convergences and others are described below.
Anatomy and Physiology
Throughout esoteric systems, a predominant theme is the pres-
ence of a “subtle” aspect to physical reality that invisibly inter-
penetrates the more visible and sensate three-dimensional uni-
verse. Concomitant to manifestations of this subtle realm in the
natural environment (eg, the existence of multiple higher dimen-
sions, the ever presence of discarnate beings, the activity of
“elemental” spirits, the reincarnation of souls) are certain fea-
tures of human anatomy not currently endorsed by allopathic
biomedicine. These include (a) the presence of several subtle
human bodies or sheaths, surrounding and interpenetrating the
visible, physical body; (b) the location on, in, or along these
vehicles of powerful vortices or energy centers (eg, the yogic
chakras); (c) the existence of a subtle healing energy or vital
force, mentioned above; and (d) the operation of a functional
system of channels that allows the flow of vital life force
throughout these energy centers and vehicles. Whether fact or
fiction, these four features have become elements of a lingua
franca facilitating communication among a wide variety of mod-
ern-day esotericists, regardless of tradition.89
The clearest and most precise elaboration of the structure and
interrelated functioning of these four cornerstones of subtle
anatomy and physiology in esoteric lore is found in the writings
of the Theosophists.90 Detailed and scholarly dissertations have
been published over the past century that carefully differentiate
physical, etheric, astral, mental, and causal bodies; root, sexual,
solar plexus, heart, throat, third-eye, and crown energy centers;
fohat, pra៮ na, and kundalini dimensions of the vital force; and the
pathways mapped by the channels of subtle flow (ie, the yogic
na៮ d ៮ıs; the meridians of Traditional Chinese Medicine). Under
variant names, these concepts can also be identified, explicitly or
implicitly, in the teachings of kabbalists, shamans, initiatory
brotherhoods, Eastern religious systems, Western magick, and
contemporary new age groups of various types.
The presence of these anatomical features is significant for
their corresponding physiological functions. Each subtle body,
in interface with its respective subtle plane or dimension, both
originates and transmutes a particular domain of human psycho-
energetic experience. The mental plane is home to “thought
forms” that precipitate down their effects from the mental body
to the astral body, where they are transformed into emotions;
these in turn exert their effects on normal physiology through a
further stepping down through the etheric body, home of the
human subtle bioelectrical system or aura. The energy centers
Esoteric Healing Traditions
and channels are the locations on the overall human vehicle
where this activity takes place—the centers serving as transducers
of the life force, directing it along the channels to points along
the body which are believed to be in correspondence with par-
ticular endocrine glands or organ systems.
Nosology and Etiology
These understandings of subtle anatomy and physiology have
consequences for the nosology (taxonomic classification) and
etiology (causation) of disease. This is not dramatically different
from allopathic biomedicine, where the categorization of both
disease entities (eg, epilepsy, colitis) and medical specialties (eg,
neurologist, gastroenterologist) follows sanctioned differentia-
tions of gross anatomical features (eg, brain, gut) and respective
physiological functions (eg, autonomic regulation, digestion).
Likewise, identification of causal or antecedent pathogenic fac-
tors in both exoteric and esoteric systems is informed by and
derived from the presence of bodily or environmental features
and processes that are believed to be real. For biomedicine, this
includes biological features of agents (eg, viruses, bacteria), hu-
man hosts (eg, immune function, heredity), and physical envi-
ronments (eg, toxic exposures). For esoteric systems, this in-
cludes a wide array of posited agents and processes: thought
forms, past-life occurrences, harassment by astral beings, chakra
imbalances, disturbances in pra៮ na flow, the result of karma.10
Esoteric anatomy and physiology are observed to influence
esoteric perspectives on nosology and etiology in two ways. First,
esoteric conceptions of human structure and function (and cor-
responding features of higher-dimensional influences) can serve
as sources of diseases identified according to existing biomedical
nosological categories. For example, the late occultist Alice
Bailey, founder of the Lucis Trust, a modern esoteric society,
attributed accepted disease entities (eg, syphilis, cancer, tubercu-
losis) to respective esoteric causal factors such as primordial race
(eg, Lemurian, Atlantean, Aryan) and dysfunctions of certain
subtle bodies (eg, physical, astral, mental) or energy centers (eg,
sexual, solar plexus, throat).8
Second, etiology may be attributed to disease outcomes or
physiological states that exist only in esoteric schemata. For
example, the late Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Anthroposophi-
cal Society, describes as a comorbid feature of influenza the
malfunction of the “sensorium,” an intracranial organ that
causes a feeling of dullness in the head when not supplied with a
requisite substance.91 Consider also the biblical tzara’at (Leviti-
cus 13-14), almost always mistakenly translated as leprosy. This
is apparently some type of skin disease diagnosable only by a
kohen (priest) and attributed to spiritual “uncleanness” due to the
subtle energetic effects of a certain class of sin (believed to be slander
or gossip). This illness is also treated as communicable due to some
unspecified contagious mechanism, and infective of both other
people and physical structures such as bedsheets and the walls of
houses. The identity and causes of tzara’at continue to baffle schol-
ars. Even the late Dr Julius Preuss, author of the definitive Biblical
and Talmudic Medicine, acknowledges that “the explanation of some
of these details is impossible to elucidate.”13 (p323)
EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2 107
Pathophysiology
Not surprisingly, the attribution of etiologic significance
to esoteric bodily structures and functions requires patho-
genic processes that operate according to mechanisms cur-
rently unknown to or unaccepted by modern biomedicine.
Throughout esoteric systems, innumerable such processes are
postulated and described—far too many to detail here. Three
key concepts, however, emerge repeatedly in esoteric writing:
(a) congestion, (b) imbalance, and (c) what might be termed
malefic relationship to cosmic forces.
According to pathophysiological models espoused within cer-
tain mystery school, Eastern mystical, Western mystical, and
new age traditions, disease may manifest as a result of blockage,
congestion, or sluggishness in circulation throughout the vari-
ous bodily systems. This includes circulation along established
channels (eg, arteries, respiratory system, central nervous sys-
tem), established but not fully understood channels (eg, lym-
phatic circulation, meridians), and the usual subtle energetic
channels. Inflammation, by this perspective, is not a separate
and distinctive category of pathogenic sign, but rather a response
to congestion—a sequela of impeded flow of some type within
these channels and a resultant backing up and stagnation of
fluids, waste products, or energies. Such an understanding of
pathogenesis can be identified, in part, in the Greek humoral
model, in traditional Indian and Chinese conceptions of pra៮ na
and chi, and in the therapeutic system developed around the
readings given by Edgar Cayce. Treatment, accordingly, focuses
on improving circulation and restoring the flow of energy or
fluids to blocked channels and organs, thus reviving and
strengthening exoteric and esoteric bodily structures and sys-
tems. This may be achieved through modalities as diverse as
colonics, needling, hydrotherapy, various forms of massage,
and, in the Cayce system, use of subtle electromagnetic devices
such as the “wet-cell battery” and “radio-active appliance.”92
Besides congestion of energetic flow, another common theme in
esoteric pathophysiology involves the concept of imbalance. Fall-
ing out of a state of dynamic equilibrium, at any “level”—physical,
energetic, emotional, mental— can produce pathophysiological
changes leading to manifestations of disease. This perspective is
commonly held throughout the mystery school, brotherhoods,
and Eastern mystical traditions, incorporated in concepts such
as the Greek humors and the Rosicrucian idea of harmonium.
The main consequence of becoming imbalanced is to increase
one’s risk of becoming ill, whether physically or psychologically.
This idea has gained considerable contemporary influence
through its centrality to a variety of complementary and alter-
native approaches to health that might not otherwise be consid-
ered esoteric. These range from entire schools such as naturo-
pathic medicine to particular theories of natural healing.93
Imbalance can be conceived of either in reference to the constit-
uent esoteric and exoteric elements of a single human life or as a
phenomenon enlarged to encompass external or environmental
influences on health.
The latter type of imbalance provides a context for the third
concept that dominates esoteric writing on pathophysiology.
The cosmic forces spoken of here are not the exoteric type com-
monly implied by the word cosmic—seasonal, climatic, atmo-
spheric, or geographic influences on health.94 Such factors are
108 EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2
decidedly exoteric, if not yet mainstream in the etiologic or
epidemiologic literatures. Rather, within certain esoteric tradi-
tions, human beings are believed capable of entering into a
malefic relationship with forces such as astrological alignments,
subtle bioelectromagnetic fields (as detected through dowsing),
miasms (or unseen disturbances in the flow of vital life energy),
and other elements of “the unmanifest reality.”95 These relation-
ships are considered here under pathophysiology and not under
the category of etiology, above, because the malefic relationship
is not considered as an antecedent or risk factor per se, but rather
as a reflection of an underlying pathogenic state that manifests
simultaneously in the individual and in the particular cosmic
phenomenon. This is consistent with the famous alchemical
dictum of “as above, so below.” For example, according to a
classic reference, the Encyclopedia of Medical Astrology, leucorrhea
is associated with an unfavorable birth chart aspect of Pluto
square with the moon96—not because the latter “caused” the
former, but because both are mirror reflections of the same
underlying disturbed reality. For this reason, the identification
of such malefic relationships serves a diagnostic function for
practitioners who recognize their “totemic” correspondences.
Therapeutic Modalities
Individual therapies prescribed within esoteric systems range
from well-known natural remedies (eg, herbs) to interventions
unique to particular traditions and not easily understandable in
terms familiar to conventional medicine. It is the latter class of
modalities that will be described here, as they are more conso-
nant, conceptually, with the objective of this paper, namely to
summarize theories and systems invisible to or uninterpretable
by prevailing exoteric systems of medicine. In surveying this
material, three general categories of therapies can be identified:
(a) subtle-energy-based forms of healing, (b) treatment with un-
usual gadgets or substances, and (c) interventions involving
shifts in consciousness, spiritual states, or one’s overall way of
life.
Methods of healing based on transmission or manipulation of
some form of subtle bionenergy are commonly endorsed by
systems of healing across esoteric traditions. Such energies are
sometimes also invoked by alternative but exoteric systems (eg,
acupuncture, homeopathy, Therapeutic Touch). Contact and
noncontact methods of subtle energy healing are taught and
promoted within the Eastern mystical, Western mystical, sha-
manic, and new age traditions especially. The presumptive salu-
togenic value of these techniques, for physical and emotional
healing, is grounded in an understanding of the pathogenic po-
tential of disturbances in human bioenergy fields.97 Across spe-
cific schools and philosophies of healing, the healer is typically
viewed as a conduit of healing, drawing down something—an
energy, pure light, consciousness, spirit—that facilitates the cli-
ent’s own restoration to equilibrium and wholeness. One inter-
esting synthesis of Theosophical, occult, and yogic systems dif-
ferentiates among what it terms “pranic,” “telepathic,” and
“radiatory” healing.59 A scholarly discussion of the potential
mechanisms involved in transpersonally delivered spiritual heal-
ing differentiates among “paraphysical,” “energetic,” and “mag-
netic” methods of healing.98 The ability to balance internal hu-
man energies, or preserve a balance between such energies and
Esoteric Healing Traditions
subtle environmental forces (à la “external qi”), is a feature of the
“job description” of myriad esoteric healers, from new age body-
workers to initiates of secret orders to Eastern adepts to third-
world shamans to present-day kabbalistic and gnostic healers.
The widespread existence of hands-on healing modalities
throughout the world, across esoteric traditions, utilizing plainly
nonuniform methods and ascribing results to widely divergent
explanatory systems, suggests that the efficacy of the healing
encounter is not a simple function of technique or skill set. The
essential elements making for efficacious healing encounters,
besides a minimum of technical skill, are believed to be found in
other features of the transaction between healer and healee. In
one thoughtful model, influenced by Western occult teachings,
this boils down to the “three D’s”: dispassion, discernment, and
detachment.99 Other healers describe similar prerequisites, such
as an ability to achieve mental focus and to sense a connection to
the client and to all beings.100 A respected bioenergy practitio-
ner, well known by the present author, offers a take most repre-
sentative of the perspectives of other healers: successful healing
requires of the healer a single-pointed focus, an ability to set an
intention or mental image, and most of all, empathy (L. Mead,
personal communication, May, 2007). Identification of empa-
thy or compassion as a sine qua non for successful healing is
almost universal among the most accomplished healers, such as
Dora Kunz,101 Rosalyn Bruyere,102 Olga Worrall,103 Jack
Schwarz,104 and Brugh Joy.105
A second major category of esoteric therapies involves use of
highly unusual machines or substances to balance, purify, treat,
heal, or cure. Scores of instruments exist, ranging from small
gadgets to large machines, that purport to serve a therapeutic
function of some kind. Regulation has proved difficult if not
impossible for federal agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, as many of these machines are marketed for
relaxation, spiritual growth, or entertainment, and not explicitly
for medical intervention. Much of this instrumentation is de-
signed to utilize, manipulate, or interface with subtle bioener-
gies, so this category of esoteric therapies overlaps somewhat
with the previous one. Examples of popular instrumentation
include the numerous brain-wave synchronizing light and
sound machines,106 radionics machines,107 Biocircuits,108 mag-
nets,109 wet and dry flotation tanks and sound tables,110 and
apparatuses not able to be categorized, constructed from chan-
neled or revealed information, such as the devices described in
Cayce readings92 or electrotherapeutic machines based on Tesla
technologies.111
Numerous substances likewise have been promoted as capa-
ble of immediate or lasting health effects, for both acute and
chronic conditions. Stereotypically new age modalities include
use of crystals and gemstones arrayed on the body; ingestion of
magickly potentized liquids or powders; breathing of smoke
from tobacco, incense, or burnt written affirmations; and wear-
ing or ritual use of amulets or other sacred objects. It would be a
mistake, however, to presume that these methods of healing are
a solely contemporary phenomenon. Ingestion of unusual nat-
ural substances for purposes of healing was characteristic of var-
ious civilizations of the ancient world.112 Another “substance”
promoted as a healing resource is color. Combining the occult
principle of rays with the yogic chakras and Theosophical subtle
Esoteric Healing Traditions
bodies, systems of correspondences exist which attribute distinct
healing properties to respective frequencies of colored light ap-
plied to regions of the body.113
A third category of esoteric therapies involves the facilitation
of shifts in consciousness or in one’s spiritual or secular lifestyle
as a means of eradicating disease or attaining wellness. Particular
methods of accomplishing such shifts, whether transient or per-
manent, typically derive from teachings that are imbued with
sacred meaning. Oftentimes such teachings are channeled from
discarnate entities. Enormous amounts of health-related self-
improvement material has been received from such sources as
the Course in Miracles, the Aquarian Gospel, “ascended masters”
such as Saint Germain, entities with Native-American-sounding
names (White Eagle, Silver Birch), various competing astral
Jesuses, and more recently popular new age celebrity channelees
(eg, Ramtha, Lazaris, Seth, Emmanuel). Thankfully, insightful,
dispassionate overviews of this material exist in print.114 To
summarize, these teachings tend to emphasize self-care, focusing
on the importance of changing one’s perspectives on life, self,
and vertical and horizontal relationships as keys to becoming
healed and whole.
IMPLICATIONS FOR MEDICINE
Esoteric approaches to healthcare hold a considerable attraction
for a significant segment of adult medical patients. National
probability surveys of utilization rates for complementary and
alternative therapies, such as the National Health Interview Sur-
vey, now typically include items assessing unusual mind-body
therapies, spiritual practices, and forms of bioenergy healing
considered somewhat marginal even for alternative medicine.115
If utilization data are a valid indicator, then perhaps we ought to
reconsider the term “marginal.” Findings from the 2002 Na-
tional Health Interview Survey, for example, identified over two
million adult Americans who reported a lifetime use of “energy
healing therapy/Reiki,” including over one million just in the
past year. The numbers for therapeutic use of guided imagery, qi
gong, yoga, and ritual prayer were comparable or even higher.
New age-oriented beliefs and practices, in particular, have
been significant features of a sort of invisible domain of the folk
medical sector for at least a quarter of a century, especially in the
United States. This is not dissimilar to the domain of “invisible
religions” spoken of by sociologists116—privatized expressions of
spirituality that exist entirely outside of formal, organized, and
institutionalized religions and are informed by beliefs drawn
from sources outside of even unconventional categories of faith
traditions. Although much of what constitutes esoteric healing
seems to occupy a realm beyond even established conceptions of
complementary and alternative medicine, this realm undeniably
exists. Clinicians, and investigators, who fail to inquire about
these types of beliefs and practices therefore risk missing a good
deal of the therapy-seeking activity of their patients or research
subjects.
By now, primary care providers are familiar with the impor-
tance of probing for use of complementary and alternative ther-
apies. Younger cohorts of physicians, especially, have exhibited
“a striking degree of interest” in alternative approaches, both
professionally and personally, since the 1980s.117 Assessment of
EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2 109
patients’ use of established alternative therapies, however, is lia-
ble to overlook domains of healing resources much more “alter-
native” than even alternative medicine. It is not easy to offer
recommendations to clinicians as to how to proceed when the
content of such approaches is so unusual and the prevalence of
utilization and profile of utilizers have not yet been precisely
identified. These barriers must eventually be overcome. Many
esoteric beliefs and practices, when existing among particular
patients in parallel to accepted medical care, may be medically
harmless in and of themselves— especially the more stereotypically
new age variety (eg, use of gemstones, channeled information, ritual
meditations). Some may even provide patients with perceived or
actual benefit. Other more occult involvements, on the other hand,
may present real risks, physical and emotional.118 It would behoove
family physicians and other primary care providers to get a
heads-up on any potentially unusual approaches taken by their
clientele, notably those that may interfere with effective conven-
tional care.
Not surprisingly, most explicitly esoteric approaches to healing
are empirically unverified and untested. Perhaps a “weirdness” fac-
tor prevents alternative-medicine-related research efforts from ex-
tending their focus to this domain of health beliefs and practices.
If so, this is certainly understandable in light of the ongoing
struggle for legitimacy on the part of complementary and alter-
native medical practitioners. It should give clinicians and med-
ical scientists considerable pause, however, to recognize that this
same weirdness factor is a potent attractor to legions of patients,
whose utilization of unproved new age or other esoteric thera-
pies often occurs in isolation and precludes conventional care.
Many esoteric approaches to diagnosis and treatment seem to
encompass elements that are identical to certain conventional or
alternative approaches (eg, phytomedicine, meditation, body-
work). Other esoteric approaches are sui generis (eg, clairvoyant
or channeled diagnosis, treatment through balancing of chakra
energies). Systematic investigation of salutogenic mechanisms
would be provocative and fascinating, to be sure, but may be
premature in light of existing models of explanation. Trials and
medical outcomes studies of clinical efficacy may be more pro-
ductive at the present time and are strongly advised. Utilization
studies conducted by health services researchers are also espe-
cially recommended so that the prevalence, patterns, and deter-
minants of use may be mapped with greater precision than is
currently available.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, medical and health profes-
sions educators have shown a great willingness to expand curric-
ula into two previously uncharted and taboo areas: religion and
spirituality119 and complementary and alternative medicine.120
Most North American medical schools, for example, now in-
clude at least some required or elective coursework on both
topics. Material related to esoteric healing traditions would seem
to fall somewhere in the gray area between these two topics. The
persistent popularity of new age concepts and therapies, and the
considerable interest shown in health beliefs and practices re-
lated to shamanic and Eastern mystical traditions, argues for
inclusion of these latter topics in surveys and overviews of key
spiritual and alternative approaches to healing. It is easy to crit-
icize esoteric healing in general as marginal, and in many in-
stances strange, but the importance of these systems and con-
110 EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2
cepts for some patients should not be overlooked. Moreover, we
ought not refuse to consider the possibility that today’s esoteric
healing may, in some instances, be tomorrow’s scientific medi-
cine.121 Equipped with a basic understanding of the origins and
constituent features of these traditions, providers will be able to
more fully identify the resources that patients draw on in seeking
to improve their health.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Lea Steele, PhD, and Laura Mead, CBT, for
helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.
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